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California Air Resources Board News Clips for August 10, 2011.
This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office
of Communications. You may need to sign in or register with
individual websites to view some of the following news articles.
AIR POLLUTION
Air District: Help take control of pollution to avoid fine. The
San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District has created a
new plan for keeping ozone levels below the EPA limit, even as
local drivers and businesses brace for a $29 million
noncompliance fee. That controversial annual fine, which could go
into effect as early as the fall, will tack on $12 to valley car
registrations and charge large businesses that haven't invested
in emissions-reducing technology. Posted.
http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x1206333696/Air-district-Help-take-control-of-pollution-to-avoid-fine
CLIMATE CHANGE
Carbon contracts lose Chicago exchange as attention shifts to
Calif. market. Commodity trading house IntercontinentalExchange
(ICE) Inc. is phasing out the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange
and shifting its focus to California. ICE's decision comes at a
tough time for environmental commodities trading. Financiers
dabbling in U.S. emissions trading have been reassessing their
business in the United States since the Senate set aside
legislation to create a national cap-and-trade program for carbon
emissions. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/08/09/4 BY PAID
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
FUELS
Can an industry with big trucks and small wallets cut fuel use?
Truckers face a relatively gentle on-ramp as they comply with the
Obama administration's new fuel efficiency standards, an industry
group said yesterday. The Obama administration set the first-ever
standards for the industry yesterday. From 2014 to 2018,
heavy-duty trucks will have to get 10, 15 or 20 percent more
efficient, depending on the type of truck (Greenwire, Aug. 9).
Getting there won't take much more than "off the shelf"
technology, according to the White House. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/08/10/2 BY PAID
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
Fuel-efficient auto effort already supports 151,000 jobs, report
states. More than 151,000 Americans already have jobs aimed at
making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient, according to a new
report. The number of clean-vehicle technology jobs is also
expected to increase as the automotive industry embraces new fuel
economy standards. "We know the technology exists to make cleaner
vehicles, we know that cleaner vehicles can lead to savings at
the pump, …Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/08/10/5 BY PAID
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
White house announces 20% emissions cut for heavy trucks by 2018.
The White House today announced the first-ever efficiency
standards for heavy trucks and work vehicles, which would improve
the fuel economy of tractor-trailers by 20 percent. The
standards, which will apply to vehicles produced between 2014 and
2018, are expected to save $50 billion in fuel costs over the
life of the vehicles while slashing 270 million metric tons of
greenhouse gas emissions. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2011/08/09/5 BY PAID
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
VEHICLES
Heavy Trucks to Be Subject to New Rules for Mileage. Big
tractor-trailer trucks will have to get 20 percent more miles per
gallon by the 2018 model year under the first-ever fuel economy
rules for heavy vehicles, announced Tuesday by President Obama.
The rules mimic the “light duty” fuel economy standards for cars
and sport utility vehicles that have been in place since 1975.
But they are more complex, tailored to cover vehicles including
garbage trucks, which must get a 10 percent improvement, and
pickups and vans too big to be covered by the existing rules,
which must now make a 15 percent improvement. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/science/earth/10truck.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=diesel%20emissions&st=cse
First fuel-efficiency and greenhouse-gas emissions standards for
trucks announced. President Obama and truck makers reach
agreement on fuel economy and pollution standards for big rigs,
work trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles. Reporting from
Washington— President Obama announced the first fuel-efficiency
and greenhouse gas standards for long-haul rigs, work trucks and
other heavy-duty vehicles Tuesday, the second mileage pact with
manufacturers in less than a month. The regulations call for
reductions on fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions by
2018 of 9% to 23%, depending on the type of vehicle. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-trucks-20110810,0,6810898.story
High-speed rail price tag soars again, this time on pace to
surpass $60 billion. For the second time since voters approved
California's massive bullet train project, the state on Tuesday
raised the total price tag for the first stretch by several
billion dollars -- and now the cost for the entire rail line is
on pace to skyrocket to an eye-popping $60 billion to $80 billion
or even more.
http://www.mercurynews.com/california-budget/ci_18645051?source=rss
Michigan leads U.S. in clean car jobs, UAW-backed study says.
Michigan has 24 percent of U.S. jobs related to "clean" car
technology, the most of any state, a report by the UAW and two
environmental groups said. The state has 38,067 of the 155,466
U.S. workers who make products that increase fuel efficiency or
reduce emissions, according to a study released by the UAW, the
Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife
Federation. Posted.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110809/OEM05/308099812/1186
By SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
Heavy-duty fuel efficiency standards to reduce oil imports by a
third by 2025. In a preview yesterday of what is to transpire
later this morning at the White House, senior administration
officials said new fuel efficiency standards for heavy- and
medium-duty trucks, vans and buses will reduce carbon pollution
from tractor-trailers by about 20 percent, medium-duty trucks and
vans about 15 percent and vocational vehicles from fire trucks to
garbage haulers, by about 10 percent. Posted.
http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2011/8/9/Heavy-dutyfuelefficiencystandardstoreduceoilimportsbyathirdby2025.aspx
First All-Electric Subscription Plan: Car 2.0 Pricing. Recently,
Tesla, a trailblazer in revolutionizing the current era of
electric cars announced the end of production of the original
Roadster. Tesla is phasing out the Roadster, which cost over
$100k the past few years, and phasing in its new Model S, which
will have a version as low as $57,400. As Tesla spokesperson
Khobi Brooklyn explained in a Fast Company article titled “The
End of an Era“ that the roadster made huge advances in the
all-electric vehicle (EV) …Posted.
http://cleantechnica.com/2011/08/08/first-all-electric-subscription-plan-car-2-0-pricing/
GREEN ENERGY
Calif. Solar Plant Faces Lawsuit. An initiative to build one of
the world's largest solar power plants is finally having its day
in court. Located in Panoche Valley, south of Silicon Valley, the
$1.8 billion, 399-megawatt facility is the center of a debate
between environmentalists who support green energy and
environmentalists who fear the plant will harm wildlife. The
proposal, slated to break ground in 2013, was approved last year
by the San Benito County Board of Supervisors, but environmental
groups including the Sierra Club …Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/08/10/9 BY PAID
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
FERC Pulls Plug On Northern Calif. Wave Power Project. Wave
power's prospects in California suffered another setback last
week when federal regulators quietly yanked a permit for a pilot
project that was to operate off the coast of Sonoma County in the
northern part of the state. The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission told the Sonoma County Water Agency that it will
cancel a permit issued in 2009 for a "hydrokinetic" project off
the coast because of a lack of funds. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/print/2011/08/09/8 BY PAID
SUBSCRIPTION ONLY
MISCELLANEOUS
An Economist for Nature Calculates the Need for More Protection.
Dawn is breaking over this remote upland region, where neat rows
of coffee plants cover many of the hillsides. The rising tropical
sun saturates the landscape with color, revealing islandlike
remnants of native forest scattered among the coffee plantations.
But across this bucolic countryside, trouble is brewing. An
invasive African insect known as the coffee berry borer is
threatening the area’s crops. Local farmers call the pest “la
broca”: the borer. Posted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/science/09profile.html?ref=earth
OPINIONS
Utilities Cash In When You Go Solar. I recently got a copy of a
utility bill for a Minnesota business that has a 40 kilowatt (kW)
solar PV array. I wanted to learn how quickly they'd pay off
their array with the electricity savings. I was shocked.
Payback time was 30 years. Even if the business owner had
received a generous $2.00 per Watt rebate on top of federal tax
incentives, it would still take 22 years to recoup the
investment. It all came down to the way utilities account for
solar power under "net metering" rules. Posted.
http://www.grist.org/solar-power/2011-08-08-clever-accounting-lets-utilities-cash-in-when-you-go-solar
BLOGS
Fuel Economy: It’s Not Just for Cars Anymore. The Obama
administration issued fuel economy standards on Tuesday for
medium and heavy trucks, the first time the government has
regulated vehicles over 8,500 pounds. The vehicles in this
category range from the very largest S.U.V.’s, and pickup trucks
that are too big to be household vehicles, all the way to
18-wheelers, which have a maximum loaded weight of 80,000 pounds.
Posted.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/fuel-economy-its-not-just-for-cars-anymore/?scp=2&sq=air%20pollution&st=cse
Natural Carbon Storage Off the California Coast? A new study from
the University of Southern California finds that the cool waters
off the coast of Los Angeles are acting as a carbon sink by
sequestering more carbon than other parts of the world’s oceans.
Lisa Collins, a lecturer at the USC Dornsife College, spent four
years studying samples from floating sediment traps in the San
Pedro Basin as a way to determine what’s falling through the
water column and how deep it’s getting. Posted.
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/08/09/natural-carbon-storage-off-the-california-coast/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FClimateWatchBlog+%28KQED%27s+Climate+Watch+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
Getting more voices into the climate game, starting with Steven
Chu. It's easy to overthink the problem of climate change
skepticism, to get caught up in sophisticated theories about the
psychology of communication. (Er, guilty.) But the question of
how to influence public opinion does have some simple answers.
One thing that changes people's minds is receiving signals that
trusted people and institutions are in agreement on an issue,
that it's no longer contested, that it's socially "safe" to
accept it. Posted.
http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-08-09-getting-more-voices-into-climate-game-starting-with-steven-chu
U.S. Postal Service Reports $400 Million in Energy Savings Since
2007. Reports of the imminent bankruptcy of the U.S. Postal
Service are here once again – the latest news being a loss of
$3.1 billion in the third quarter of this fiscal year – but if
rain, snow and gloom of night can’t stop the carriers from their
appointed rounds, then what’s a little financial uncertainty? Not
only is the mail still being delivered, but according to the
latest sustainability report from USPS, it is being delivered
with about 30 percent less energy than in 2003. Posted.
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/08/postal-service-reports-400-million-energy-savings-2007/
O.C. human waste now powers hydrogen cars. An experimental fuel
cell is turning the Orange County Sanitation District into a
filling station for hydrogen cars. The fuel cell, which produces
both hydrogen and electricity from waste gas at the Fountain
Valley sewage treatment plant, began a three-year demonstration
run June 1; a “grand opening” will be held Aug. 16. If it proves
useful, the project could be expanded in coming years. Posted.
http://sciencedude.ocregister.com/2011/08/09/o-c-human-waste-now-powers-hydrogen-cars/134715/
Pike Research forecasts hybrid electric locomotive sales could
reach nearly 500 units from 2011 to 2020; to utilize 514 MWh of
battery capacity by 2020. According to a recent report from Pike
Research, hybrid locomotive sales will reach nearly 500 units
during the period from 2011 to 2020, representing an increasing
portion of the total market. During that period, hybrid
locomotive sales will increase at a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 19.4% under a baseline forecast scenario, with annual
unit sales surpassing 100 locomotives by 2020. Posted.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/08/pike-20110810.html